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Simon Johnson, former International Monetary Fund chief economist, writes that the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has erred in easing liquidity requirements. Johnson writes that big banks have too much influence in the regulation writing process.

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The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is pushing to establish international capital standards by January, expecting President-elect Donald Trump's promise to ease financial rules to start a domino effect in Europe and Japan. The US likely will join Europe to press for relaxation of Basel III capital standards, says Simon Johnson, a former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund.

Luxembourg's Ardagh Group is raising $1.45 billion from the sale of high-yield notes to fund its acquisition of the U.S. glass-bottle unit of Cie. de Saint-Gobain. It is the biggest high-yield bond by a European issuer in two years. Bank of America Merrill Lynch's Euro High-Yield Constrained Index shows that yields on European high-yield bonds have fallen from 12% a year ago, to 5.27%.

Comptroller of the Currency Thomas Curry said he expects Congress to address the need for several technical corrections to the Dodd-Frank Act this year. It is unlikely that the basic law will undergo any significant changes, he said.

U.K. inflation remained well above the Bank of England's 2% target last month, at 2.7% for the third consecutive month. Looking ahead, "inflation will rise above 3% over the coming months, which we expect to reduce the [central bank Monetary Policy Committee's] appetite for further [quantitative] easing," said Victoria Clarke, an economist at Investec.

Efforts to bring U.S. banks into compliance with international standards have run into an obstacle over the use of ratings agencies to evaluate assets. The use of ratings firms is mandatory under rules of the Basel Committee but prohibited in the U.S. under the Dodd-Frank Act.